The Arrival

Sometime ago, I came across this funny yet true quote on some website

No man needs a vacation so much as the person who has just had oneElbert Hubbard

Well, I am fortunate enough to get another one. So I had this vacations planned with my best friends. In fact, it was planned first, then I thought about doing the Eurotrip. The whole thing was spontaneous. We had the tickets and hotel booked within two after my friend mention that they have plan to go to Turkey. About my friends, they are the (yes, article used here is the) awesome couple from Turkey and their names are Melih and Derya!

Us at Amsterdam Airport

So the flight was at around 14:55. I got up early out of excitement and tried to eat the left over calzone from last night but ended up throwing whole thing. That East European cuisine have spoiled me. I left the apartment at 11:30 or something and went to office. My friends were their already. I had coffee and chit-chat with other friends in office and then we left to go to train station.

Got into the train and reached airport. I left figuring out the bus/train/plane part on my friends as I was doing that for 2 weeks already. We reached Amsterdam Schiphol Airport in a 15 minutes I guess.

First we dropped the luggage and got our seats finalized. Then we decided to eat something and Burger King was the best option we had. We said, alright, let’s do it this time, we’ll be eating awesome food soon anyway. We had our burgers and then we went for boarding.

Us again, this time in the plane

The flight was very punctual, the plane was running on airport at 14:56. The whole fight was so fun. I fly alone most of the time, but if you’re flying with friends, it’s a really different experience which makes flight fun and smooth.

During the flight, I ordered chocolate muffin and coffee with lots of coins that I had, that was not good at all. I practiced the few Turkish words that I was going to say to parents of Derya. And before we knew, we were about to land on Istanbul airport. From the plane I could see the awesomeness already.

At Uskudar Metro station in Istanbul. Noticed the number of steps on stairs behind us? Yeah, they are a lot!

At airport I got the sim and then we took Metro. Inside metro, I started to experience Istanbul already. I could see woman in skirts standing next to woman in scarfs (a piece of other that Muslim woman wraps around there head as a part of religion), that was the part where two Worlds combines.

After quit sometime in Metro, we reached our station. The district is called Uskudar. There is a Turkish song with the same name and Coke Studio Pakistan collaborated with Turkish musician to make a Urdu version of the song where they change the lyrics to something completely different.

We came out of station and then I saw Istanbul with it’s with glory, it was dark by then and the city was full of lights, I could see lights everywhere. Following pictures doesn’t do justice with Istanbul because it was taken with my camera but even high-end cameras won’t be able to capture the experience

Istanbul at night – Unfortunately, picture was taken with a phone camera

After walking a bit, we met Derya’s parents. I repeated the Turkish greetings like robot. They were really warm and friendly people. We went to a nearby restaurant, which offers a nice view of sea and Maiden’s Tower out of glass windows they have.

By that time, I was çok ajiktum (very hungry, come one people, do you even speak Turkish). I ordered Lentil soup, Kofte (meat balls) and Ayran (a cold yogurt beverage mixed with salt). I was so hungry and excited that I almost forgot to take pictures. Here are some

We had a bad of chit-chat and then decided to call it a night. Derya’s parents didn’t speak English but there was still some conversation going on between us.

We drove together and we went to the hotel, where I was going to stay. They dropped me there and went back to their apartment. I was really tired and my tummy was full so I slept early.